INIS Fest 2015 - It's happening!

Clareman · 11-04-2015 9:02am #1

Very disappointed to hear that INIS Fest has been cancelled, this could have brought a lot of people to the town, I guess the local residents thought it was going to be a Garth Brooks type event

http://clareherald.com/2015/04/10/inis-fest-cancelled/

Mod Note: Thread title changed as the event is back on again

Clareman · 11-04-2015 9:16am

I really can't believe that this is cancelled just because a minority were against it, I wouldn't mind if they put a structured arguement in place but by all account meetings just descended to shouting matches. The festival was due to have 3,500 people at each session, that's a maximum of 10,500 people (assuming no-one would go to more than 1 event) coming to the town, considering a match in the park can hold ~15k people I can't see the problem, in fact, I'm not sure of the official number but there was supposed to have been 30k people at the hurlers home coming 2 years ago. Disregarding this, the Fleadh is coming to Ennis next year, this is often the largest festival in the country each each bringing up to 250k people to the town that are awarded it, does this mean that this will be cancelled as well because of local residents having a problem with it?

It was bad enough the Lisdonnvarna festival being relocated to Dublin a few years ago, but now a top class line up is organised and ready to go but because of a minority it won't go ahead,

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 11:49am

They held the meeting at Tom Steeles. There could not have been that many people in there. Even if the place was filled it wouldn't account for more than a fraction of the towns residents.

Name and shame those who voted this down.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 11:58am

CptSternn wrote: »

They held the meeting at Tom Steeles. There could not have been that many people in there. Even if the place was filled it wouldn't account for more than a fraction of the towns residents.

Name and shame those who voted this down.

It wasn't for town residents though, it was for the people in the vicinity of the Park. The worst thing is there wasn't any vote AFAIK, the organisers tried to deal with the local people and couldn't so had a choice of either going ahead without local support or cancelling it.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 12:07pm

Clareman wrote: »

It wasn't for town residents though, it was for the people in the vicinity of the Park. The worst thing is there wasn't any vote AFAIK, the organisers tried to deal with the local people and couldn't so had a choice of either going ahead without local support or cancelling it.

People around the park are town residents and they represent less than a handful of people.

Hopefully someone will publish their names.

sammyjo90 · 11-04-2015 12:09pm

that's a real shame, I can never understand why people are against something like this. it could have brought so much to this town that has been slowly dying for the last few years.
pity

Clareman · 11-04-2015 12:11pm

sammyjo90 wrote: »

that's a real shame, I can never understand why people are against something like this. it could have brought so much to this town that has been slowly dying for the last few years.
pity

I have no problem with people being against something, we are lucky to live in a society where people can voice their disapproval for things, the problem I have is that this was clearly a minority and there is a lot of precedent given for similar and larger events nearby recently, FFS the Fairgreen used to be a no go most weekends when I was younger.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 12:21pm

What's really sad is how we have a massive amount of empty business buildings and the local chamber is always trying to come up with ideas to bring in visitors. Someone comes up with a brilliant idea that will will add a needed boost to local businesses only to be shut down by a handful of people more concerned about petty little disturbances in their life than they are about this town and everyone else who lives in it.

The people who did not want this to go through are small, petty, selfish individuals and should be publicly named and shamed for what they are.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 12:28pm

CptSternn wrote: »

What's really sad is how we have a massive amount of empty business buildings and the local chamber is always trying to come up with ideas to bring in visitors. Someone comes up with a brilliant idea that will will add a needed boost to local businesses only to be shut down by a handful of people more concerned about petty little disturbances in their life than they are about this town and everyone else who lives in it.

The people who did not want this to go through are small, petty, selfish individuals and should be publicly named and shamed for what they are.

It's a great example of NIMBY but only when it suits, just because of a high profile case last year in Dublin there's locals who think they can do whatever they want, there'll be a massive crowd in town next year which will have a massive impact (both positive and negative), but that's ok, but because it's something different it can't happen.

ger664 · 11-04-2015 12:44pm

It is sad that this is not going ahead as it would bring much needed revenue to the town but I do believe that the venue choice was bad. Cusack Park or the Showgrounds would have been more suitable from a security/crowd management and parking point of view and open to less objections.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 12:55pm

ger664 wrote: »

It is sad that this is not going ahead as it would bring much needed revenue to the town but I do believe that the venue choice was bad. Cusack Park or the Showgrounds would have been more suitable from a security/crowd management and parking point of view and open to less objections.

Cusack Park will never get approval for something like that, the place is falling down, technically the Showgrounds and Cusack Park are private venues as well. The council decided on the venue as the Fairgreen has been deemed the location for events like this.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 1:54pm

Venue was perfect. Did no one else go there for the championship celebration?

Clareman · 11-04-2015 3:10pm

From Facebook, some of the demands of the residents

1, Residents asking for 40 Gardai inside the festival area on top of the 45 security and 15 stewards. ( The Gardai recommended 6 inside the festival boundary)
2, Residents asking for 24 hour security on all estates.
3, Toilets on all all roads leading to festival.
4,Residents asking for festival to be moved to an afternoon event.
5, Residents asking for it to be an alcohol free festival.
6, Residents asking for us to put in place a contingency fund for any damage to their property.

I think 2 and 3 and reasonable enough requests, the rest just aren't going to happen in Ireland.

ger664 · 11-04-2015 3:22pm

CptSternn wrote: »

Venue was perfect. Did no one else go there for the championship celebration?

I did. Crowd consisted of a wide range of age groups from 5-6 upwards in good spirits with the main event over shortly after Nine.
A music concert will have a different audience with different ideas on what constitutes having fun. Its too open to manage from the point of view of crowd control and security for this type of event.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 3:24pm

ger664 wrote: »

I did. Crowd consisted of a wide range of age groups from 5-6 upwards in good spirits with the main event over shortly after Nine.

I had my (almost) 1 year old daughter with me along with my parents, so I know that the ages were from 10 months up to 72 years of age, there was a great buzz around the Lifford area that night and I was back there the next day and the place had been cleaned up already.

Jhcx · 11-04-2015 3:37pm

Im very disappointed in the Ennis people over this once again they spoke and destroyed everything. Some people have no care or respect for the towns profile or its residents, shops, pubs, restaurants. As someone else mentioned im quite concerned for the Fleadh next year. if a few people like this can bring a 3 day event to the ground they are going to destroy any hope of any events coming to this town. I really hope that future organizers tell them to put up or shut up. obviously there's concerns to address. but security in every estate bit much imo patrols would be good enough. this is 3,500 at a session aimed at all ages of people. not just trouble makers. every event will have messers the amount of security suggested just wouldn't be economical for any event.

sammyjo90 · 11-04-2015 3:38pm

ger664 wrote: »

. Its too open to manage from the point of view of crowd control and security for this type of event.

no one would do anything anywhere if people always had that kind of can't do thinking. personally I think it would have been worth a shot. and if it all went tits up then it wouldn't become an annual thing. chalk it up to experience and move on

Clareman · 11-04-2015 3:45pm

I assumed that rolling security could cover the estates.

The organisers had gotten feedback from the Guards, urban council, civil defence and fire brigades and were going to do all the recommended steps, they had also engaged the security behind the Slane events to provide the private security, the more I'm looking into this the more it's annoying me.

ger664 · 11-04-2015 4:14pm

sammyjo90 wrote: »

no one would do anything anywhere if people always had that kind of can't do thinking.

Personally I was looking forward to going and would love it to happen but my view is the fairgreen is too open for an event of this type.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 4:16pm

ger664 wrote: »

Personally I was looking forward to going and would love it to happen but my view is the fairgreen is too open for an event of this type.

Were you at the home coming?? It was ideal for an event, barriers would be put up and people allowed within those, it's ideal for a concert

Jhcx · 11-04-2015 5:27pm

Im not sure if its allowed but want to add a link to one of the organiser's who had an imput. just goes to show that this has affected those who have spent there time to try and make something great. and not just some organisation who are doing it purly for profit. Facebook INIS FEST post

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 7:12pm

After speaking to a few heads around town there is more to this story than has yet to be made public.

The number of people objecting is 8. These people are the ones who came up with those ridiculous requests, and best part, they offered to withdraw their objections, for a fee.

They were offered free 3 day tickets but still wanted a cash payment on top of the free tickets, else they said they would sue the organisers. They have no chance of winning, but they themselves made it clear they could halt the festival due to the time it would take to deal with it in court and also the organisers are working with charities to do this event and do not have the legal funds to cover such nonsense.

These 8 are not elderly residents, they are mid-twenties and early thirties. Some do not have families there and just rent. They are looking for free money and have basically said as much.

Whats even worse is a large chunk of the money that was to be taken in was going to charities, as many mentioned above. The charities were selling the tickets and have already spent money on promotions around the event and these charities are now not only going to lose out on this money, but will also lose all the money they put into promoting this event as well.

It truly is sad a handful of people (eight) looking to make a quick few quid would put out the entire town and cost charities all that money just to try and enrich themselves.

I would name and shame them here, but as it turns out their names as we speak are spreading around town and it won't be long until the full story along with those involved are made public by the local media.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 7:31pm

If the names I've heard are correct then a couple of big local outlets wont be saying anything bad about the objectors.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 7:38pm

Clareman wrote: »

If the names I've heard are correct then a couple of big local outlets wont be saying anything bad about the objectors.

Heard that too, which is why I didn't post the list here myself.

One particularly litigious one in the bunch sure.

But it won't be long until the entire town knows anyway, with or without the names being made public by local media. This is Ennis.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 8:28pm

Yup, more information is making its way into the public now. The person in question who is leading the eight threatened legal action to have the alcohol license pulled, or at least held up stopping alcohol at the event unless payments were made.

Seriously, this person has now achieved the level of actual cartoon villain - stopping a massive charity event meant to help sick children and help struggling local businesses in the town they live because they want more money.

CptSternn · 11-04-2015 8:52pm

Can't name anyone or even make suggestions to whom may have been involved due to possible legal issues, however there was this nice picture in the Clare Champion last week which is also currently displayed on their website along with the story of those who objected to the event...

Clareman · 11-04-2015 9:20pm

http://www.clarechampion.ie/residents-critical-of-concert-plan/ here's the link

galvo_clare · 11-04-2015 9:52pm

I was at both meetings between the residents and the organisers of Inis Fest.

It is not correct to say that residents were completely against Inis Fest. The facts are these:

Inis Fest was mooted late last year and the organisers, on approaching the Council, were offered the use of the Fair Green for the festival and told to engage with local residents to ensure that any disruption would be minimised, particularly important given the numbers of elderly people in the area, not to mention two hospitals.

Tickets went on sale and acts were announced long before any engagement with residents took place. On hearing about Inis Fest, we contacted the organisers as nobody had come near us, even though we live adjacent to the Fair Green.
Darren Purtill and Carmen Cronin called to our house and in the course of discussion we suggested a public meeting would be a good idea to allow any concerns to be aired.
That meeting took place a few weeks later and a good number of legitimate concerns were put to the organisers and questions asked. At the end of the meeting, 11 items were at issue and the organisers were to come back to a second meeting a fortnight later with answers to these queries.

At the second meeting, which took place last Tuesday, most of the questions remained unanswered and no concrete assurances could be given regarding legitimate concerns for security and public safety.
At the close of the meeting, the organisers gave an undertaking to come back to a third meeting with more complete answers to the residents' concerns.

I don't know how many objections to the drink licence are on file. I do know that nobody was offered 3 day tickets and nobody to the best of my knowledge has been offered or demanded cash to withdraw those objections.
I can speak for myself that I have objected to the drink licence as is my democratic right. I have not asked for or been offered tickets or cash or any other inducement to withdraw this objection.
At the first meeting, a question was asked as to whether any tickets had been set aside for residents, in an arrangement similar to what happens in Croke Park.
We were told that local residents would be offered tickets for the Sunday family event, which is free in any case.

This list of 8 doesn't exist.

Residents had generally accepted that Inis Fest was going ahead and were merely seeking to minimise disruption as is their right. It is a pity it's not going ahead but things might have been different had the organisers engaged with local residents earlier, as they had been asked to do by the council.

Scapegoating those living near the Fair Green is not the answer.

CptSternn wrote: »

After speaking to a few heads around town there is more to this story than has yet to be made public.

The number of people objecting is 8. These people are the ones who came up with those ridiculous requests, and best part, they offered to withdraw their objections, for a fee.

They were offered free 3 day tickets but still wanted a cash payment on top of the free tickets, else they said they would sue the organisers. They have no chance of winning, but they themselves made it clear they could halt the festival due to the time it would take to deal with it in court and also the organisers are working with charities to do this event and do not have the legal funds to cover such nonsense.

These 8 are not elderly residents, they are mid-twenties and early thirties. Some do not have families there and just rent. They are looking for free money and have basically said as much.

Whats even worse is a large chunk of the money that was to be taken in was going to charities, as many mentioned above. The charities were selling the tickets and have already spent money on promotions around the event and these charities are now not only going to lose out on this money, but will also lose all the money they put into promoting this event as well.

It truly is sad a handful of people (eight) looking to make a quick few quid would put out the entire town and cost charities all that money just to try and enrich themselves.

I would name and shame them here, but as it turns out their names as we speak are spreading around town and it won't be long until the full story along with those involved are made public by the local media.

Clareman · 11-04-2015 10:00pm

galvo_clare wrote: »

I was at both meetings between the residents and the organisers of Inis Fest.

It is not correct to say that residents were completely against Inis Fest. The facts are these:

Inis Fest was mooted late last year and the organisers, on approaching the Council, were offered the use of the Fair Green for the festival and told to engage with local residents to ensure that any disruption would be minimised, particularly important given the numbers of elderly people in the area, not to mention two hospitals.

Tickets went on sale and acts were announced long before any engagement with residents took place. On hearing about Inis Fest, we contacted the organisers as nobody had come near us, even though we live adjacent to the Fair Green.
Darren Purtill and Carmen Cronin called to our house and in the course of discussion we suggested a public meeting would be a good idea to allow any concerns to be aired.
That meeting took place a few weeks later and a good number of legitimate concerns were put to the organisers and questions asked. At the end of the meeting, 11 items were at issue and the organisers were to come back to a second meeting a fortnight later with answers to these queries.

At the second meeting, which took place last Tuesday, most of the questions remained unanswered and no concrete assurances could be given regarding legitimate concerns for security and public safety.
At the close of the meeting, the organisers gave an undertaking to come back to a third meeting with more complete answers to the resident's concerns.

I don't know how many objections to the drink licence are on file. I do know that nobody was offered 3 day tickets and nobody to the best of my knowledge has been offered or demanded cash to withdraw those objections.
I can speak for myself that I have objected to the drink licence as is my democratic right. I have not asked for or been offered tickets or cash or any other inducement to withdraw this objection.
At the first meeting, a question was asked as to whether any tickets had been set aside for residents, in an arrangement similar to what happens in Croke Park.
We were told that local residents would be offered tickets for the Sunday family event, which is free in any case.

This list of 8 doesn't exist.

Residents had generally accepted that Inis Fest was going ahead and were merely seeking to minimise disruption as is their right. It is a pity it's not going ahead but things might have been different had the organisers engaged with local residents earlier, as they had been asked to do by the council.

Great post, thanks for putting your points across.

galvo_clare wrote: »

Scapegoating those living near the Fair Green is not the answer.

I agree that scapegoating isn't the answer, I think blame is being levelled at the residents, mainly because that's who the organisers are blaming, I'd be very interested to hear the organisers point of view, especially about the lack of proper engagement, if a third meeting was planned I'm extremely confused as to why the whole event was cancelled late on a Friday night, hopefully it's not just a ploy to try to get public sympathy to allow them ignore the residents requests.

Aineoil · 11-04-2015 10:11pm

Clareman wrote: »

I assumed that rolling security could cover the estates.

The organisers had gotten feedback from the Guards, urban council, civil defence and fire brigades and were going to do all the recommended steps, they had also engaged the security behind the Slane events to provide the private security, the more I'm looking into this the more it's annoying me.

Just want to add my two cents here. I have seen the guards and bouncers deal with the teenage discos in the Queens.

They were amazing! I couldn't praise them enough and I am picky at the best of times. They made the movement of a huge amount of teenagers look easy - it's not! Health and safety are issues so banndied about. But what I saw on the nights my son attended the discos was common sense.......Not so common unfortunately.

I think the Inisfest would have been great for Ennis from every point of view - money into the town, people having a bit of craic etc.

Anyway there's a facebook page to try and get the festival back.

https://www.facebook.com/inisfest

Clareman · 11-04-2015 10:16pm

Aineoil wrote: »

Just want to add my two cents here. I have seen the guards and bouncers deal with the teenage discos in the Queens.

They were amazing! I couldn't praise them enough and I am picky at the best of times. They made the movement of a huge amount of teenagers look easy - it's not! Health and safety are issues so banndied about. But what I saw on the nights my son attended the discos was common sense.......Not so common unfortunately.

I think the Inisfest would have been great for Ennis from every point of view - money into the town, people having a bit of craic etc.

Anyway there's a facebook page to try and get the festival back.

https://www.facebook.com/inisfest

I agree 1million percent with you, the event would have been brilliant for the town and I've no doubt that the proper security would have made it a brilliant success, FFS, events are better patrolled than most Saturday nights. I will also say that locals are allowed raise concerns and not have anything forced on them, there's a lot of rumours flying around at the moment, hopefully both sides will get to get their side of the story out.

INIS Fest 2015 - It's happening!

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